Dreams and Daylight
by Tigress2475
Summary: Alfred's dreams have been haunting him for a while now. He refuses to sleep normal hours, and it's starting to affect his real life. Everyone around him is taking notice, but Alfred insists that it's just something he needs to push through. How can he put it behind him though, if his 'dreams' outright refuse to be ignored. AU (USUK/UKUS)


**A/N- I can't do titles or summaries, gah. Also, I don't know about you, but categorizing my stories is literally the hardest thing ever.**

**Now that that little note is over, have a story-**

* * *

Sleeping was getting more and more difficult for Alfred.

The whole 'sleep deprivation' thing was starting to show. His friends at school kept asking him about his ruffled looking appearance or tired attitude. Teachers snapped at him for falling asleep in class, and more than a few times he'd been sent to the nurses office because he was physically incapable of staying awake in class. It had already happened twice that week, and the nurse was suggesting medication.

His brother Matthew had even gone to unplugging the wi-fi at night (that sneaky brat). Alfred was left playing games solo offline or paging through books in the lamplight. He'd gotten reprimand after reprimand, but nothing changed. No 'go to sleep already' could convince him- he stayed up as late as he could and woke up early nonetheless.

Which made those few short hours of sleep all the more relieving, and all the more painful.

Alfred could feel the pull of sleep already. His eyes flickered and the book he held started to drift towards the covers of his bed. He knew soon he'd fall asleep whether he wanted to or not, and decided it would be better to not have to explain why his lamp was still on when he was woken up in the morning. His eyes flickered to the clock, eyes blearily staring at the numbers loudly declaring 4:00 am. That meant two hours of sleep awaited him if he didn't wake up before Matt did.

Folding his book and placing it on his bedside table, he flicked off his lamp. The darkness of the room enveloped him, and his vision was filled with the outline of where the light had been in shades of purple and blue. He blinked a couple of times to adjust his eyes, each blink making his lids heavier.

Honestly, he was probably asleep before his head even hit the pillow.

* * *

Now, there was a reason Alfred avoided sleep at night like the plague. Said reason had been a recurrence for the past three weeks.

Said recurrence was a pain in the ass.

"Finally," a voice hummed as Alfred's eyes opened. As soon as he peaked out one eye cautiously, he firmly shut it again.

"Come on, wakey-wakey," the voice continued.

Alfred decided to continue to lay where he was. Soon, a foot began to prod at his side. A growl escaped his lips and he swatted at the shoe violently.

"Ah, there it is. Come on, it's already been a good while." The foot stopped prodding, but Alfred could still feel a presence near him. The body heat of the other person hovered near his right side.

"Good, now how about you give me another hour," Alfred hissed.

"...you're not going to cooperate are you?" Alfred let out huff of air and lifted his arms up to cover his eyes.

"Come now," the voice said, suddenly calm and soothing. Alfred paused to listen. A hand tugged at his arm, trying to pull him off the ground.

"Go away."

"Alfred..." Alfred scowled as the air around him bent, pushing him into a upright position.

He cracked open an eye, finally looking at the world around him.

"Woow. You really outdid yourself. More gray? And gray? I don't think I've seen _that _shade of gray before," he said, voice dripping with fake pleasantness. He slapped on a fake smile to boot, enthusiastic person that he was.

"Hey now," the man who stood next to him said, frowning, "why should I waste my time and energy when you've already proven it's not worth it."

"Just saying," Alfred said, feigning interest. "I don't think I've seen so much gray in my life. It looks absolutely crappy."

The man's frown turned into a scowl at this point, before making a 360 degree rebound to sweet smile in point five seconds flat. "Aww, that hurt. Maybe you should be nicer."

"You know what? I don't care what you say, you aren't even real," Alfred sighed, closing his eyes again.

"But I am. What makes you say I'm not?" The sickeningly sweet tone of voice had been dropped for an indignant one. Alfred cracked open an eye to see the other man glaring and pouting at the same time, the combination was admittedly somewhat funny. He rolled his eyes and shut them again.

"Hmpf," an audible breath escaped the other man's lips. Alfred ignored it. His mind was centered on fast forwarding time. It was his dream wasn't it? He should have been able to influence it- especially since it was so lucid. Too bad he couldn't.

He nearly jumped a foot when he felt a sudden presence behind him. His eyes shot open and he glared at the blonde behind him. The man had placed his hands on Alfred's shoulders, thumbs rubbing small circles into his back.

"What are you doing?" he asked warily. Usually by this point, his dream would descend into a flaming downward spiral of yelling and screaming. This was odd.

"Nothing." The others voice was sugary, but it only made Alfred glare. The blonde man had sat down, crossing his legs in front of him and sinking to the ground. Alfred, still being held upright by the very air, held is ground.

"Sure," Alfred said, rolling his eyes. He let his eyelids flicker shut again. Concentrating, he tried to force the dream to his will. A small chuckle sounded behind him, but he used his better judgment to simply ignore it.

"Honestly, I'm sorry," the man hummed, continuing in the massage.

"For what?" Alfred asked, being sucked into a conversation practically against his will. He felt the man behind him move forward, leaning his chest up against Alfred's back and running his hands down Alfred's shoulders and arms towards his hands.

"You look so _tired,_" he finally responded.

"Shut up," Alfred snarled harshly, but it conflicted with his body language. He found himself slouching down, eyes staying shut because of the sheer weight of his sleeplessness as apposed to his own will.

"_Really,_" the man said, smirking behind Alfred's head. He leaned forward to rest his chin on Alfred's left shoulder, turning to face the others now relaxed face.

"Hmm," Alfred mumbled, not quite drifting off. It was impossible for him to fall asleep here- he'd tried before. But still, maybe relaxing wasn't so bad. This dream was being suspiciously. However after three weeks of insomnia, Alfred found he didn't really care.

"Is that better?"

"Hmm, uh-huh," he mumbled, barely audible.

"Really?" the man brightened considerably, leaning farther until his cheek rested on Alfred's collarbone and watching for a reaction with interest.

Alfred didn't respond. He opened his eyes and looked over to the other man. The way he had perked up made Alfred wary. His senses tried to collect themselves again, pushing their way through the fog in his mind. He really needed more sleep- _real _sleep. Not this cheep _not-_sleep.

He finally pooled enough of his common sense to question the situation fully. This man was never this nice, something had to be up.

"How about a 'thank you' kiss?" the man asked, smile so bright it was blinding.

There it was.

Alfred scoffed, taking a hand and shoving the other man away. His emotions were caught between satisfaction and annoyance when the man tumbled away without any resistance.

"Aww," the other man said, pouting. He stood up and brushed off the legs of his black pants. Tugging on the bottom of his white shirt to straighten it, he leaned back into the air. Alfred waited for the fall that wouldn't come as the man kicked his legs up, reclining in midair. He crossed his arms behind his head and just looked at Alfred for a few seconds. After the moment passed, he yawned over-dramatically.

"Oh my god, you are such an ass," Alfred said, glaring. The air around him suddenly collapsed, releasing him from the hold it had held. He took the opportunity to flop backwards onto the foggy ground.

"I fail to see how I am at fault here," the man said, letting out a sharp exhale. His voice had dropped the sugary tone, taking on the usual sharp one. There it was, the dream was back to its usual route.

"Just let me sleeeeeep," Alfred whined, rubbing at his eyes. He felt the ground below him curve up, pushing his head upwards and facing him towards the blonde again.

"You are sleeping. In fact it is _you _who insists on _not _sleeping. Again, I am completely faultless here."

Alfred laughed loudly, causing the other man to jolt from his relaxed pose. He dropped a good inch in the air before being caught and hovering again.

"Faultless. That's great. All you do is cause me trouble. I _need_ to stop letting a stupid _dream_ screw with my life." The other man glared at that, taking his arms and crossing them over his chest.

He dropped back to the ground, feet connecting with a clack.

"Is that what I am, hmm? A stupid dream? That all?" He brought a hand up to his face, tapping on his chin. "Because I hardily disagree."

"Of course," Alfred said.

"Why can't you just accept that I'm real, darling?"

"Because you aren't, _Nightmare_."

"I prefer to go by Arthur myself- but you know, it's not like we haven't been over that already," the blonde man shook his head in exasperation as he spoke. The hand that had tapped at his chin traveled up to hold the side of his head. Alfred had refused to acknowledge him by name in the whole three weeks he had been appearing in the man's dreams. Alfred himself didn't even know why, be it matter of pride or simply denial. It was starting to get ridiculous.

"Just _shut up,_" Alfred growled. He turned over, hitting the ground once with his fist. The gray surface complied, sinking back down to allow Alfred to shift.

The other man sighed, watching as Alfred curled up. He waved a finger in a small twirling motion. Alfred yelped as the painfully short alliance he had formed with the world ended and the air wrapped around him again. It pulled him up and formed a small pocket around him. He resisted the urge to punch at the unseeable force when he found that it was actually forming something somewhat more comfortable than what the ground had been. It settled down into a sort of bowl shape, and Alfred sank into the force. He spared himself the embarrassment of smacking at invisible air, no matter how much he wanted to, and allowed the air to hold him.

"How grand," the blonde man murmured glancing up at the seemingly endless sky of the gray world. "It's almost morning."

"Wonderful!" Alfred shouted, a manic edge creeping into his voice. "Now I get to go _not_ learn in class because I _didn't_ sleep!"

"I already told you," the man practically drawled, letting his vowels hang in the air, "that's not my fault. You could end this whole thing right now after all. It's just you prolonging your own misery."

"Wha-" Alfred started but stopped when the blonde winked and tapped at his lips with his index finger. "I thought I already said no."

"Just one little kiss," the man said, leaning back onto the air again and kicking up his feet on some invisible footrest.

"No," Alfred said tiredly. Luckily, he could feel the world around him growing weaker, soon he'd be released from his dream. The invisible force around him started lowering him slowly to the ground in a rather non-deliberate way.

"If I'm so 'not real' then what's the harm? What would the harm be anyway? Even if I 'were real'?" The man was pouting now. He stayed stationary, firm in his perch in the air even though the air around Alfred collapsed once more. His eyes followed where Alfred's feet finally touched down and he was left standing.

"One, because I have some dignity. It doesn't matter anyway, because you are a dream. However," he gave the other man a pointed look, punctuating it with a physical point of his finger, "say if you were somehow something other than a figment of my imagination or some crazy delusion my mind came up with- you would still be a nightmare. And a nightmare could only end badly for me."

"Well good luck with that detention you have today then." Alfred jerked around to stare incredulously at the statement.

"How-?"

"What do you think I do all day?" the man asked, smirking. "See you tomorrow." He lifted a hand and waved lazily as the world started to fade.

"Hey! Wait, I wasn't done- agh." Alfred gave up with a huff and let the white fog envelope him. After a few seconds, he felt his current body go numb.

The world became clear again in a split second. Alfred sat up in his bed with a start, yelping as his head hit the headboard with a loud bang.

"Owww," he whined, wondering why he hadn't positioned himself better the night before. He rubbed at the back of his head in a way similar to a wounded animal, claiming the right to act indignant over his own poor planning.

"Hey Al," a voice came through the door, following a quick series of knocks lasting no more than a couple seconds. "I take it you're awake?"

"Yeah," Alfred said. His statement was answered by the door being opened and his brother peering in.

"Good, because you should have been up half an hour ago," Matthew said, sad smile lingering on his face.

"What!?" Alfred cried. He jumped out of bed and rushed over to grab his things, nearly tripping over several objects in the process.

"Relax," Matthew said, walking over and placing a hand on his brother's shoulder. "I'll drive you to school."

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Alfred said, instead of responding to the offer.

"Because I thought you needed the extra sleep?" Matthew responded, raising an eyebrow. "Like I've been letting you sleep in for the past few days?"

"Yeah but not half a- just nevermind."

Matthew stood in the doorway, watching as Alfred scooped all of his stuff together in a pile before neatly stuffing said pile into his backpack. It was a marvel to Matthew how Alfred actually managed to find any papers when he needed them with his organization ethics.

Alfred paused for a minute as his head swam. Darkness crept into the edges of his vision for a split second and he leaned against the wall. He drew in a long, shaky breath.

"Alfred?" Matthew asked, concern filling his features. "Are you okay? Are you sure you don't want to stay home?"

"No, no I'm fine." Alfred waved a hand dismissively at his brother. "I just..."

"Yes?" Matthew prompted, hoping desperately to get a straight answer from Alfred, who had been avoiding him and acting weird for quite some time now.

Alfred _hmm_ed before grabbing his clothes and pushing past Matthew to the bathroom in the hallway.

Matthew sighed. So much for a straight answer.

* * *

"Jones!"

Alfred snapped upwards as the loud voice rang through the room, accompanied by the slam of a textbook hitting the table by his head. He blinked rapidly and looked up to the glaring teacher. He grinned sheepishly and giggles echoes throughout the room from his fellow classmates.

"_Do _try to stay awake," the teacher said, tapping his foot. "I understand that Euro may not be the most interesting subject, but you chose this class and I expect you to pass it with flying colors. That won't happen if you don't learn the subject."

Alfred remained silent as the man turned back to the front of the class to continue his lecture.

"Now, anyway- about how all these European countries can't shut up and stop their fighting for any amount of time-"

Alfred tried his best to listen. In between the moments when he actually absorbed information, his brain trailed off on tangents. Why had he taken AP Euro again? And why was Mr. Zwingli the teacher? He always complained about all the European countries. All the man ever did was talk about how, on a basic level, the history of Europe could be simplified into every country being guided by its inner toddler... toddlers with a grudges.

The clock dragged forward more slowly than Alfred would have liked, but he managed to concentrate and write down some notes to boot. He acknowledged that when he looked back on them later, they probably wouldn't make sense- since they seemed to make sense enough now to his sleep-addled mind.

Alfred was already pretty sure he'd already failed his test first-block, despite the extra half hour of sleep. He'd squinted at the test for half the class, before scribbling down random answers that at least sounded relatively correct. He was usually a straight-A student, and he knew his teacher would let him make up the test later.

Walking into his study-hall room, Alfred collapsed into a chair. He sat there for a moment before turning to pull papers out of his bag.

After barely any time at all, he'd given up on the paper he was supposed to be drafting and rested his head on top of his arms on the table.

"Just... one minute," he murmured to himself.

Then of course, one minute blended into two and morphed into six at some point beyond that. At ten, a finger tapped on his shoulder lightly.

"Awake!" Alfred yelped as he straightened. He found himself staring into the concerned face of his study-hall teacher.

"Alfred, I thought you said promised to get some rest. This is the fourth time you've fallen asleep in here in the past couple of weeks."

"Sorry," Alfred rubbed at his eyes with one hand and used the other to hold up his head.

"Alfred..." the petite man sighed and brought a hand to the side of his face. "I can't..."

"I'm sorry Mr. V," Alfred repeated, "I'll do my best to... to not... fall asleep again."

"I'm not worried about that Alfred, this is study-hall after all, but- to put this simply, you look terrible. Are you sick? I don't know why your health has gone downhill so suddenly."

Alfred ducked his head, aware of the sidelong looks from the others in the room. Nobody else in the room had anything better to do than eavesdrop in on his conversation and it was obvious, lovely.

"I'm fine," Alfred said, insistently denying any sort of problem like he had for the past three weeks.

After all, why would he want to tell the world he was headed down a one-way trip to the looney bin.

He'd been depriving himself of sleep for weeks because of a ridiculous dream. And the worst part was, it was starting to bleed into his life as well. Every now and then he'd swear he would catch a glimpse of something that wasn't there out of the corner of his eye- or be magically supplied with thoughts that were nowhere near his own. At this point, he wasn't sure if it was his original delusions that were causing the problem, or the lack of sleep that had been caused by said delusion.

The teacher pursed his lips and gave Alfred a look that clearly said 'yeah, sure', but luckily he allowed the topic to drop. "Well... I suppose you can sleep for the rest of the class if you want, we'll just hope no administrators walk in."

"Have I mentioned you're totally my favorite teacher Mr. V?" Alfred said, laughing. The man nodded, smiling, before turning and walking back to his desk.

Alfred did put up a honest effort to at least attempt to stay awake, but his head was sinking down to the desk after only a minute.

The thing was, Alfred could stay up all night finding inconsequential things to do. He would reorganize his room over and over, log countless hours on video games, or burn through rereading a whole series in a few days. However, the same did not apply to the day. He never dreamed during the day, so his body had up and decided 'well you need sleep, so sleep now' in an attempt to make up for his self-induced insomnia. He tried his best, he really, really did, but his own biology couldn't exactly allow him to stay up 24-7.

And then after school, there were _clubs _as well that Alfred had to suffer through- along with whatever detentions he suddenly found himself earning for one reason or another. But he refused to quit anything. He wouldn't allow this bump in the road to win.

Now if only he could figure out exactly what was happening to him, and how all this had started, maybe he'd be able to find an answer to his problems.

At least his twenty minute nap in study-hall was filled with a pleasant blankness. And not one made up of mixing shades of gray either- a classic, normal, dreamless blankness.

* * *

**A/N-**

**I'm not dead, I swear.**

**So like, here's a thing. I've decided I have far too many AU ideas for my own good. Also, apparently my writing is like 99.99% USUK. (I'm planning on writing a different Hetalia story and a SnK one too soon though! Because I can't write USUK ****_all _****the time.)**

**Dream AU! Yaaay! I'll let you all take your bets now on where this one headed. Because right now, reading through it I'm like- "hahaha... yeah nice description Dawn".**

**Also- Mr. V is Finland, because like hell I'm writing out Väinämöinen. I doubt Alfred could pronounce it either.**

**Please let me know what you think- I appreciate it very much.**

**Thank you for reading- Dawn.**


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